Twitter Harboring Terrorists?

No its not but this recent case has got everyone speaking about the freedom of speech in UK. The story goes that Paul Chambers was stuck at Doncaster airport as his flight was being delayed and then later on canceled due to the heavy snow. Frustrated and angered, Paul decided to vent it out on his social networking group on Twitter by saying “Robin Hood airport is closed,” he tweeted. “You’ve got a week and a bit to get your s**t together, otherwise I’m blowing the airport sky high!!”

The apparent joke was not really a joke for UK Police & Anti-Terrorist authorities who, after a week, knocked on his door only to tell him that he was being arrested under the Terrorism Act and showed him the piece of paper with details of what he tweeted.

Paul was in custody and under questioning for over 7 hours, only to be released on bail until February 11th.

His Twitter account has been deleted, his iPhone, laptop and PC have been confiscated for probe and his life is screwed.

Now coming to what I think is going on. The world at this point in time is at a state of war [yes it is whether to accept it or not]. The winners here are the terrorist who have messed up our minds and lives so much that the Governments are actively monitoring what we do, without our knowledge. It is more like what we see in the movies [Echelon Conspiracy, Eagle Eye, Enemy of the State]. The technology is so sophisticated that each and every word we write on the Internet, SMS or anywhere on the electronic media is recorded and keywords are monitored.

People are talking about freedom of speech and let me tell you, actually there is none. No matter how much of an innocent you are, a tweet like what Paul did is bound to get you in trouble. Twitter has given a platform but to use it efficiently is your call. What Paul did may have been innocent for him but it was downright stupid for me. There is nothing in his tweet which actually indicates that it was a joke. It sounded and looked like a threat and the action was taken accordingly.

Let’s see how this event turns up in next couple of weeks but one thing is for sure… “They are watching you!”